A $3 million gift from the Mike Curb Foundation will establish the Mike Curb Center for Appalachian Music at Maryville College, creating a permanent resource for studying, preserving and celebrating the musical traditions of Southern Appalachia while opening new opportunities for students, faculty and the wider community to engage with the region’s rich cultural heritage.
Scheduled to launch in time for the 2027-28 academic year, the center will strengthen the College’s long-celebrated Music Department and its commitment to the wider East Tennessee area. Planned as an extension of the College’s Division of Fine Arts, the center will bring together teaching, scholarship, research and public programming focused on the history and continuing evolution of Appalachian music, while building connections with the College’s developing initiatives in environmental research, regional culture and community wellness.
“With this gift, Maryville College joins the Curb Network of notable colleges and universities, including institutions such as Arizona State, Baylor, Belmont, Bethune-Cookman, Claremont/McKenna, Fisk, Occidental, Rhodes, UCLA, Vanderbilt and several others,” said Maryville College President Dr. Bryan Coker in an announcement to MC faculty and staff. “The Mike Curb Foundation, since its inception, has provided grants and gifts totaling more than $200 million in support of causes such as music education, preserving historic music sites, addressing homelessness and a wide range of services in communities associated with Curb music enterprises.”
At Rhodes College, a similar-sized liberal arts college located in Memphis, the Mike Curb Institute for Music offers students opportunities to explore Southern musical traditions through coursework, research, recording projects, fellowships and partnerships with musicians and community organizations. Maryville College’s center will be developed on a smaller scale, with its own distinct focus on Appalachian music and the College’s mission and regional setting.
“We are immensely grateful to the Mike Curb Foundation for this generous and impactful gift,” Coker added. “As we continue our work as the college of and for this amazing region, the Curb Center will allow us to focus on the rich musical heritage which has long existed here in Southern Appalachia but has not always received the credit it has deserved.”
The center will explore Appalachian music as a living tradition shaped by centuries of cultural exchange, encompassing a wide range of genres, influences and experiences. Grounded in Maryville College’s liberal arts foundation, its work will extend beyond the music classroom, connecting musical traditions with disciplines including history, psychology, religion, sociology and the sciences.
The gift will establish a permanent endowment for the center and provide funding for a consultant to work with faculty on its development. It will also support construction of a physical recording studio in the Clayton Center for the Arts, fund the Curb Professor of Appalachian Music position and provide an annual operating budget for the center.
The center’s launch represents a significant investment in the future of music education at Maryville College, while reinforcing the institution’s role in documenting and sharing the stories, people and traditions that have shaped Southern Appalachia. Through its academic and public-facing work, the center will create opportunities for musicians, students, scholars and community members to explore, study and perform the music of the region through the lens of its influence across generations.
“The Maryville College Fine Arts Division could not be more excited about this extraordinary gift,” said Adrienne Schwarte, professor of design and chair of the division. “This gift will provide wonderful resources to allow us to move forward with not only new programming in music, but also to build more interdisciplinary connections between music within the liberal arts curriculum and highlight and celebrate the significant and central influence of Appalachian music to the world.
“We are grateful to the Mike Curb Foundation for this gift and the vast potential it will bring for our students. Finally, we are appreciative of President Dr. Bryan Coker for his leadership in securing this gift.”
The Mike Curb Center for Appalachian Music will also collaborate with the future Tracy and Bill Frist Center for Appalachian Wellness and the Outdoors, which will be part of Maryville College’s planned Alexander Institute for Conservation Leadership and the Sciences. That partnership will explore connections between music, culture and human well-being, recognizing music’s potential to contribute to wellness across generations and musical genres.
The Alexander Institute, a planned $80 million facility currently in the fundraising and planning phase and for which groundbreaking is scheduled for late spring 2027, is designed to deepen Maryville College’s engagement with the natural and cultural resources of Southern Appalachia. The Curb Center will add another dimension to that regional focus by examining the music that has emerged from the region and the communities that continue to sustain it.
An advisory council has been appointed to begin envisioning and developing the Curb Center. Its members include Assistant Dean for Academic Success Dr. Heather McMahon, Visiting Lecturer of Music Dr. Robyn Rocklein, Associate Professor of Music Dr. Eric Simpson, Professor of Music Dr. Bill Swann and Schwarte. Additional faculty members are expected to be announced as the work progresses.
The new center builds on Maryville College’s longstanding connection to the musical life of the region, from the legacy of Charles McCallon Alexander (1867-1920), the College’s first professor of music who later became a globally renowned evangelist, to the generations of musicians and songwriters whose work has carried Appalachian sounds and stories to audiences around the world.
Through the Mike Curb Center for Appalachian Music, Coker said, Maryville College will bring that heritage into sharper focus — preserving its history, encouraging new academic work and creating opportunities for future generations to learn from, participate in and contribute to the musical traditions of Southern Appalachia.
“The purpose of the Mike Curb Center will be to study, uplift and preserve the history, contributions and legacy of music in Southern Appalachia, the region we call home,” Coker said. “From the legacy of Charles McCallon Alexander to modern-day musicians and songwriters like Dolly Parton, the music of this region has long been a powerful force in our nation and our world. We look forward to establishing Maryville College’s place in the celebration and preservation of this rich musical legacy.”
Editor’s note: Steve Wildsmith writes for us now and then, but today he’s wearing his Maryville College hat. He’s the assistant director of marketing and communications there, and this piece comes from the college, not our newsroom.
